You probably will not need a note from your cardiologist, but a big
appetite would be helpful. As will an appreciation of fried foods.

That’s because Puriscal starts its chicharrones festival today, and
the event runs through next Friday.

The community about 25 kms. (15 miles) west of San José is better
known for its production of faux Cuban cigars. The chicharrones festival
has lot more than eating fried pork ribs. There will be other examples
of Costa Rican cuisine and drinks, as well as a full-scale horse parade
Sunday and a night of guitars Tuesday.

Chicharrones in Costa Rica are chunks of pork ribs or leg cubed, boiled
and fried. They are best served with fried yucca and other

delicacies you never will find on
the Weight Watchers menu.

The event is sponsored by the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo and
the Unión Cantonal de Asociaciones de Puriscal. Other attractions
include a tobacco tour, sugar cane mills, the Monumento Nacional Iglesia
de Barbacoas, A butterfly reserve, and the Reserva Indígena Zapatón.
Of course, the fair itself will feature sales of art work.

The climate is one in transition between the tropical lowlands and the
Central Valley. The area has a small but growing community of expats.

The fair is 300 meters south of the Templo Antiguo in the center of
town. Tourism officials point out that buses to the community leave San
José from the Mercado la Coca Cola every 30 minutes.

Double Thanksgiving and doubly good times

This year I was doubly blessed at
Thanksgiving. I got to share two different Thanksgiving celebrations.
The first was with Bill White at the Colony (that is what we call the Julia
and David White Artists’ Colony in Ciudad Colón.) I shared
Thanksgiving dinner with several of the permanent residents of the Colony
and three writers, all women, who are currently there.

Judy, our hostess, roasted the turkey breasts, and the rest of us brought
the trimmings. We were about a dozen people with more food than we could
finish in two days. It was an amazingly compatible group — mostly
people from the U.S., although one of the writers was born in South Africa.
The table talk was politics — both the U.S. and Costa Rican, and most of
us would have been described (if you were labeling) as closer to being
bleeding-heart liberals as opposed to cheap-labor conservatives.

My second Thanksgiving was celebrated Saturday (giving me one day to
fast in between). This was a totally different group of people —
the extended families of the descendants of U.S. missionaries who came
to Costa Rica in the early part of the century and among other things,
founded the Clinica Biblica.

Just about everyone, except myself, was bi-lingual and bi-cultural —
U.S. and Costa Rican — the best of each. Three, perhaps four generations
were represented, including, of course a number of teenagers and younger.

There is a lovely etiquette custom in Costa Rica that has been passed
on by these families. Upon arrival, each person, including the youngest
of children, makes the rounds of the people already gathered, greeting
or introducing themselves with a kiss and/or a handshake. The result
is there is an immediate connection between adults and children, and I
think it must give the children

a sense that they, too, are important, which, of course, they are. (Someone
recently noted that babies are carried facing front, not against the shoulder,
so that they can see where they are going, too.) There is no reticence
on the part of the children — even teenagers — in showing affection for
their parents at such gatherings.

Before we sat down to eat, we made a circle, and each of us took a minute
to say what it was that we were thankful for during the past year.
Cathy was our hostess, and she prepared two large turkeys. The rest was
potluck. It included all of the traditional side dishes familiar in the
States. Dinner conversation included politics and catching up with
each other on the past year. It was a warm family gathering and I
was honored to be a part of it.

And since this is the season to be thankful, and I am feeling especially
so, I want to thank my readers. As much as I love to write, I love
even more the fact that people read what I write and respond to it.
Some of you live in Costa Rica and I have met you, others write to me.
I even received a number of recommendations for cures and aids for my cold.
They ranged from liquid oxygen to tea from the bark of the Neem tree.

I appreciated everyone’s concern. And does anyone know if the
Neem tree, a native of India, grows in Costa Rica? A doctor in Mexico
wrote to me about this and asked. The bark of this tree seems to have as
many medicinal uses as the leaf of the marijuana plant without the controversy.

Two visitors to the Feria Artesanal check out bottles of lotion. They
are Didi Hyde and Cindy Taft.

Pre-Christmas art marketwill run through Sunday

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Bracelets, lotions, Boruca masks and hammocks are available at Parque
España this weekend. The third annual Feria Artesanal opened Thursday
morning and will run through Sunday.

Over 30 different vendors have set up under white tents. Products range
from traditional crafts and decorations to more contemporary games and
jewelry.

There is also a small stage set up in the park to facilitate several
musical acts that are planned throughout the weekend.

Parque España is located across from the Instituto Nacional de
Seguros. The fair, sponsored by the Municipalidad de San José, runs
daily from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Human rights court hereupholds Berenson conviction

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

American Lori Berenson appears to face 11 more years in a Peruvian jail.
Thursday the Interamerican Court of Human Rights said it had upheld a Peruvian
court’s 20-year sentence on terrorism charges against Berenson.

Berenson was arrested in 1995 and received a life sentence from a Peruvian
military court. That ruling, however, was overturned in 2000 as flawed,
and a civilian trial was ordered. In 2001 the civil court found her guilty
and passed down a 20-year sentence.

The Interamerican Court, based in San Pedro, is the highest-ranking
American human rights court and was Berenson’s final appeal. The court’s
decision to uphold the Peruvian ruling comes after months of international
speculation.

Several U.S. human rights groups have maintained that Berenson is innocent.
The groups claim that Berenson received an unfair trial that was manipulated
by the local media and the government.

Last month Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo said that regardless
of the court’s findings, Peru planned to keep Berenson in jail.

Toledo was the one who announced the outcome of the case Thursday. The
court was supposed to announce its ruling today, but Toledo hid been notified
ahead of time as a courtesy. Once Toledo spoke in Peru, the court here
placed the decision on its Web site.

Berenson was arrested in 1996 over suspicion that she was linked with
a local terrorist group, the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. The military
court’s sentence convicted Berenson of treason as the leader of the movement.
The 2001 ruling convicted her of a lesser charge, terrorist collaboration.

I travel a lot. And I like to carry my cellular phone with me. When
I was in Thailand, I could buy a SIM for my GSM cellular, pre-paid. I just
had to identify myself in the shop where they made a copy of the passport.
In three minutes I had a Thai phone number. The same in Brasil. Or in all
European countries. Actually in more then 100 countries worldwide. The
easiest thing to do.

Not in Costa Rica. I was several times in the ICE office. No sir, we
can not give you a number when you bring your cellular phone from outside.
No sir, we do not have SIM prepagado. No sir, we have no roaming, you can
not use your phone in our country. "No hay" is the most used sentence in
Costa Rica concerning modern communication. Including Internet access.
Do you really think it is good so?

Hans Ueli KühniSwitzerland

We are a bunch of left-wing whackos

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

Oh that’s a real nice picture this morning!!
More anti-gun b/s. England of all people have already learned the lesson
of giving up their guns, and you left-wing bunch of whackos that run this
liberal left wing rag agree with everything I disagree with. All I can
say is GOD bless OUR Second Amendment rights, the NRA and GEORGE BUSH

Marvin Powell ex- Costa Rican now
from a real country, Panama

EDITOR’S NOTE; The writer refers to a photo of British Ambassador Georgina
Butler helping to saw up guns during a ceremony marking the abolition of
the Costa Rican army.

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Jean Batiste Colbert (1619-1683) was minister of finance and commerce
during the reign of Louis XIV. He was also the father of France’s ship
and canal building industries. Bordeaux burgeoned and La Rochelle and its
shipyards essentially came to life with the maritime genesis. To this day,
many regional culinary treats in French cookbooks bear the name Colbert
— not only seafood and fish dishes, but also pumpkin and asparagus soup
and escargot.

Joel Suirer was born in a town near La Rochelle 46 years ago. His mother
claims that he began to help her cook soon after he learned to walk into
the kitchen. An old hand, he entered cooking college in Toures at 15. He
has been cooking ever since.

Two and a half years ago, he built his own restaurant. It sits on a
barren windy hill, up Poas Mountain, 25 kilometers from Alajuela. Just
10 kilometers short of the volcano, take the right turnoff to La Paz Waterfalls
and Vara Blanca. Six kilometers straight down the road, 400 meters past
the La Paz marker (do not turn), Colbert looms naked except for beds of
impatiens, behind a sign that emphatically declares ABIERTO in red. The
other side of the sign, CERRADO, never faces the road except in the middle
of the night. Suirer cooks three meals a day, seven days a week.

Up the long flight of concrete stairs, you enter a large, rustic dining
room with rough hewn beams, a central brick fireplace, many humble tables
and few diners. The tablecloths are burgundy with white napkins and place
covers, watched over by new wildflowers.

Fresh baked crusty loaves and a cheese display near the door add delicious
aromas to the wood fire that burns when the clouds descend from the mountaintop,
which must be often, since the trees are covered with bromeliads and other
epiphytes. The room is glass enclosed on all but the kitchen side. Hummingbirds
feed in sun or gloom. Maps of Costa Rica and France, a three fork La Nación
review from two years ago and few prints hang from the walls. Brandies,
aperitifs and digestifs sit across the room from a display of wines from
Bordeaux to the Rhone Valley.

Tabletop signs proclaim the daily specials, smoked salmon appetizer,
a cheese board, roasted pairs of quail, rabbit in a mustard-tomato sauce
and pejibaye soup. Complimentary tastes of pork pate, Joel’s mother’s recipe,
topped with a small slice of homemade cornichon, came to the table with
warm crusty bread and sweet butter. Our group of three orders them all
plus a baked-to-order puff pastry vol au vent topped with mushrooms and
hearts of palm in a smooth savory cream sauce for our one vegetarian.

The pejibaye soup was rich, but not too rich from excess cream reduction
which may render this puree inedible

in other venues. No complaints on the other dishes. The rabbit
was tender and sauce classic. Crisp cooked chayote cubes and boiled small
potatoes were perfectly uniform in size shape and doneness, the mark of
a very caring and skillful kitchen. Salads were crisp, simple and well
dressed with house creamy vinagrette dressing. Crepe suzettes and profiteroles
disappeared without a trace. On another occasion, our experiences with
chicken crepes and pork slices in a Valencia orange sauce were as good.

On a third visit, I arrived for breakfast. The morning spread was less
sophisticated but decent. The warm bread and rich coffee were just rewards.
Afterwards, I blew my cover for the chance to ask the chef some questions
and to see the kitchen, which was immaculate. After 25 years in Costa Rica
with a Tica wife, he is a relaxed charmer with none of the Gallic pretentiousness
I have seen in other French kitchens. Also missing are the kitchen staff,
except for a single prep person, tuxedoed waiters, patronizing greeter
and haute prices. What an unusual, refreshing throwback experience.

In the age of celebrity French chefs on book tours, talk radio and television,
trying to run multiple restaurants from afar, always seeking more stars
from reviewers, we find Chef Suirer who bakes bread, makes his own fruit
preserves, cooks all the meals and often helps greet and serve, with old
fashion grace and humility as if we were guests in his home.

There is no star system to do him justice. The notable well staffed
kitchens on Paseo Colón and Los Yoses can out-fancy him with pomp,
crystal, fine china, starched uniforms, wall hangings, costlier ingredients
and florist arrangements. I doubt that any of them could match his work
ethic and dedication to his restaurant and its patrons or his modest prices.
He does the name "Colbert" proud.

When next I take visitors to Poas or La Paz, I shall bring them to Colbert.

Prices: Hot and cold appetizers, soups and fresh plates of pasta are
all less than 1,850 colons (about $4). Main courses: chicken and pork less
than 2,000 colons, fish less than 4,000 and steak and shrimp dishes
about 4,400. Desserts are 1,100 to 1,350 colons.

Tourism official hopes talks will end jams at airports

By Clair-Marie Robertsonof the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The minister of tourism, Rodrigo Castro Fonseca, said he hopes that
the negotiations under way with Alterra Partners arrive at a happy conclusion
and end the jams at the nation’s two major airports.

"The integral solution to this problem that exists regarding our airport
largely depends on the fact that we can reach an amicable conclusion,"
said Castro.

Castro said that thanks to airlines expanding their operations to Costa
Rica and a successful international marketing program, Costa Rica has become
one of the most important tourist destinations in the world.

Last year tourist arrivals grew by 11.3 percent. This year the Instituto
Costarricense de Turismo predicts that there will be a growth of 18 percent.
As a consequence, Castro said that this further emphasizes the importance
of an amicable resolution with Alterra, which operates Juan Santamaría
Airport in Alajuela.

Castro said that he organized an institutional committee made up of
departments such as the Ministry of Obras Publicas y Transportes. Since
August this committee has been attempting to resolve the problems regarding
long waiting times that exist as much in Juan Santamaria Airport as Daniel
Oduber Airport in Liberia.

Castro said that the committee has
taken important steps to correct the problems. In Juan Santamaria
Airport, the immigration department has acquired a further 11 employees.

Castro said that he feels that the airport is now better equipped to
cope with the influx of tourists this high season.

"In the next few days we will be arranging another meeting with the
ministries that make up this committee with the aim of going over the finer
details with respect of the customs and excise department," said
Castro, adding that "the government perfectly understands the seriousness
of the situation. The Ministerio de Hacienda has approved over 50
additional vacancies for immigration, customs and excise. Those departments
can no longer continue with the same amount of people they had 15 years
ago when the amount of tourists was much less."

The minister of Turismo said that his aim is that the airport has a
maximum waiting time of 45 minutes. In the case of the Daniel Oduber Airport
in Liberia, Castro said that thanks to the support of a private company
a second building was constructed at the cost of $700,000.

This enabled the departure and arrival sections to be separated in the
airport.

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Vote in Peru triggers start of war against smoking

By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services

An international treaty to reduce tobacco use will take effect Feb.
28 in 40 countries. The treaty is aimed at curbing the harmful effects
of cigarettes around the world.

More than 160 countries adopted the World Health Organization Convention
on Tobacco, but before it could take effect, the legislatures of 40 countries
had to approve it. This week Peru's legislature approved the convention,
triggering the international tobacco ban.

The 40 signatories of the convention are bound to try to reduce smoking
through a variety of measures, including bans on cigarette advertising
aimed at teenagers, increasing taxes on the sale of cigarettes, stronger
labels on cigarette packages and enacting laws forbidding smoking in public
places.

World health spokesperson Marta Seoana says such measures are needed
because voluntary measures by

tobacco companies to curb smoking,
especially among teenagers, are suspect.

"The tobacco industry needs to continue selling cigarettes," she said.
"Because they are in the business, that is the only way they are going
to survive. And they are expanding in many countries, especially
in the developing world. So I think governments need to take to lead
and this is what they are doing with the convention, doing it with their
own national programs."

Health officials hope enactment of the anti-tobacco convention will
encourage other countries that have not signed on to do so. The United
States is among nations that have not ratified the treaty. The U.S. Department
of Agriculture says the U.S. is the world's third-biggest exporter of tobacco.

The World Health Organization estimates there are 1.3 billion smokers
around the world. International health officials say half of all
smokers will die prematurely because of tobacco use.

Some improvement seen in plight of Latin newspeople

By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services

What is it like to be a journalist in Latin America? You should, among
other things, be prepared for harassment by judges and physical attacks.
That was the consensus of a panel on freedom of the press in Latin America
and the Caribbean that was held Thursday in Washington, D.C.

If they do their jobs properly, journalists in Latin America frequently
find themselves the target of criminals and corrupt officials. The New
York-based Committee to Protect Journalists reports that eight journalists
were killed in Latin America and the Caribbean over the past 11 months.
Journalists were murdered for doing their jobs in Brazil, the Dominican
Republic, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru. But there was a glimmer of
good news.

The deputy director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Joel Simon,
says this was the first time in a decade that no journalists were killed
in Colombia, where a conflict between the government and Marxist rebels
has gone on for 40 years. But according to Simon, Colombian journalists
have paid a price for their safety. He says they have reduced their vulnerability
by censoring themselves.

"They are simply afraid. They are not reporting on rural violence,"
he said. "They are not reporting on human rights issues simply because
the risk is too high. So the fact that no journalists were killed in Columbia
this year, for the first time in at least a decade, is very good news,
but the reasons for it are troubling."

Simon and other members of the panel criticized laws in Venezuela and
Brazil that they say will severely restrict journalists. In Brazil, President
Luiz Inacio Da Silva is urging the legislature to enact a new press law
that he says will guide, discipline and police the field of journalism.
Critics counter the law will severely restrict journalistic freedom.

In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez is expected to sign the Law of Social
Responsibility in Radio and Television. Domestic critics and international
groups such as Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders say the
law threatens freedom of the press.

But Ilenia Medina, Venezuela's alternate representative

to the Organization of American States,
defends the law.

She says the new law is needed to ensure access to the airwaves and
protect citizens' rights to information. She notes that Venezuela's law
does not criminalize media misconduct, but merely applies administrative
sanctions. She is also critical of countries, such as the United States,
that allow the criminal prosecution of reporters who refuse to reveal their
sources.

Currently, U.S. federal court judges have threatened two reporters with
as much as 18 months each in jail for refusing a court order to testify
about their contact with confidential sources who revealed the name of
an undercover operative at the Central Intelligence Agency.

Simon, with the Committee to Protect Journalists, says the U.S. law
has been cited by repressive governments in Latin America and elsewhere
to defend their treatment of journalists.

"It makes it easier for governments around the world, repressive governments,
to justify their own repressive policies, which in many cases result in
the incarceration of journalists," he said.

But despite the problems facing the press Eduardo Bertoni, the Organization
of American States' special rapporteur, says there is cause for optimism
in some countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

"One of the issues that is really inspiring is that there are many countries
that are passing access to information laws," he said. "That began in 2002
with Mexico, then Peru, then Panama, and during this year Ecuador and the
Dominican Republic. And there are a lot of countries that are debating
access to public information laws, and I think this is the good news that
comes from the continent."

Earlier this week Argentina became the latest country in the region
to take up the issue of access to information, when its Senate began to
study a bill that was passed by the lower house in May 2003.

The panel was sponsored by the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue,
an organization devoted to Western Hemisphere affairs.

Judge strips Pinochet of immunity in murder
of a general and his wife

By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services

SANTIAGO, Chile — A court has stripped former dictator Augusto Pinochet
of immunity in a criminal case that involved the 1974 killing of a Chilean
general.

The Santiago appeals court decision Thursday could pave the way for
Pinochet to be tried in the deaths of Gen. Carlos Prats and his wife, killed
by a car bomb.

Chile's Supreme Court has upheld
two other immunity rulings in two previous cases against Gen. Pinochet.
The cases include "Operation Condor," a joint effort by Latin American
dictators in the 1970s to eliminate the opposition.

An estimated 3,000 people died or disappeared during Pinochet's rule
from 1973 to 1990, mostly for political reasons.

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